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Anglo-Saxon deities are in general poorly attested, and much is inferred about the religion of the Anglo-Saxons from what is known of other Germanic peoples' religions. The written record from the period between the Anglo-Saxon invasion of the British Isles to the Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons is very sparse, and most of what is known comes from later Christian writers such as Bede ...
The Anglo-Saxon gods have also been adopted in forms of the modern Pagan religion of Wicca, particularly the denomination of Seax-Wicca, founded by Raymond Buckland in the 1970s, which combined Anglo-Saxon deity names with the Wiccan theological structure. [254] Such belief systems often attribute Norse beliefs to pagan Anglo-Saxons. [255]
In modern times, the term "Anglo-Saxons" is used by scholars to refer collectively to the Old English speaking groups in Britain. As a compound term, it has the advantage of covering the various English-speaking groups on the one hand, and to avoid possible misunderstandings from using the terms "Saxons" or "Angles" (English), both of which terms could be used either as collectives referring ...
The gods of the polytheistic religion practiced in England during the Old English period, before the conversion to Christianity. Some of these gods survived into the folklore of the modern era such as Woden , Weyland and Wade , though many others were forgotten.
In the present era, the white dragon symbol is sometimes associated with St Edmund, and those who commemorate him. St Edmund is sometimes regarded as the patron saint of England during the Anglo-Saxon era, until he was displaced by St George, who is famous for having slain a dragon. [6]
The following list contains saints from Anglo-Saxon England during the period of Christianization until the Norman Conquest of England (c. AD 600 to 1066). It also includes British saints of the Roman and post-Roman period (3rd to 6th centuries), and other post-biblical saints who, while not themselves English, were strongly associated with particular religious houses in Anglo-Saxon England ...
The new inhabitants practiced Anglo-Saxon paganism, a polytheistic religion in which multiple gods were worshipped, among them Woden, Thor, and Tiw. Woden was the king of the gods, and early English kings traced their ancestry back to him (see Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies). [8] Christianity survived in the Brittonic kingdoms of the west and north.
In his 1948 study of the subject, entitled Anglo-Saxon Magic, Godfrid Storms noted that the surviving evidence shows "the close connection there was in Anglo-Saxon times between magic and religion." [25] Throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, the religion of the communities living in England changed, from that of Anglo-Saxon paganism, which ...